Over 100 of our titles in English and Hindi are part of the list compiled by the Central Board of Secondary Education, for recommended reading in schools. Selected by an expert panel, these books for Classes I-XII are regularly requisitioned for schools across the country.
One naughty little cat with an orange tail and pointy ears is lost! Minnie goes looking for her Pooni, and steps onto a busy city street filled with people to talk to and things to look at. Writer-artist-cartoonist Manjula Padmanabhan’s humour-filled pictures with delightful details invite us to join in the search – for the cat who is always just one step...
Hiss! Boo! Muahahaha! Mala creeps up from behind and scares everyone. Then her mother gives her a pair of pretty silver anklets... The pictures of this charming and very popular story have the exuberance and freshness typical of Nancy Raj's work.
Thom! It lands on Kuttan’s toes. Dheem! He kicks and up it goes. The pages of this book resound with the rhythm of dance as Abu's big red ball bounces in tune with the delightful illustrations. Originally in Malayalam
One little child is staring at something. Another joins him, then another... until finally ten little children are staring at something. What do they see? The suspense builds up, page after page, through text and picture, to an amusing climax. This beginner counting book has illustrations as innovative as the concept, in black and white pen-and-wash on...
One morning, a mother and child go in search of the sun. Their journey comes alive in a vast dotted landscape where lively birds, quick-footed animals and busy humans meet and share the forest, the river and the mountain… The book is a vibrant collaboration between a master Warli artist, a design student and the publishers, inspired by the incredible...
The stars give way to the sun, the clouds to rain, the egg to the little bird… Things change. This truth is brought to children in a charmingly simple way. Dramatic pictures flow into each other to give a sense of movement, of the idea of change.
Little Siri slips away from home one day and goes around asking whomsoever she meets to smile. Find out why in the pages of this bright and cheerful book that evokes a world of colour and things to discover.
Zesty, childlike visuals that play with the shape of the tree combine with crisp text to make this an imaginative little book that will inspire young readers to care for the environment. The single line that runs through the book connecting words and pictures celebrates the tree in its myriad roles.
After the much-admired Let's Plant Trees, the author is now chasing and playing with big monsoon clouds! This time, too, the message is clear and simple. Rainwater is free, pure and precious. Let us save it – in buckets and wells and coconut shells…
After a school trip to the zoo, Amma is surprised that Meera has seen no animals – not a monkey, a lion, or even a giraffe... But why did Meera see no animals there? Her lively mother forgets to ask! Zestful pictures capture the hilarious inversion of role play. 2009: Outstanding International Book, United States Board on Books for Young People
Pranav says he is drawing a picture. But his mother sees nothing on the page! What is Pranav drawing? The narrative and freewheeling illustrations follow the simple, spontaneous logic of a child's mind.
An owl drops a purple feather in a forest. A little girl picks it up and begins a journey into magical lands... The story emerged out of a unique 3D character that Roma Singh crafted out of an old book. She made wild hair from its pages and cut out eyes like moons. Its playfulness demanded a story and Roma soon found one. The touch-and-feel visuals...
It is pouring rain. From her window, little Anju sees familiar scenes of a rainy day – cloudy skies, umbrellas, puddles… But her curious eyes pick up other surprises too, while her imagination plays with the raindrops sliding down her window pane. Soft watercolours drench the pages with the mood of a wet, wet day. 2018: Best of Indian Children's Writing:...
Somewhere in the universe, little children in butterfly-shaped time machines eat scrumptious star-rock salad from Galaxy Stellar 5689, and a volcano erupts fruit juice that freezes into ice-cream! Padma is sure of that — because that's what it says in her book. How books give wing to imagination, how flights of fantasy can be as real as the world around…...
There was once a prince who hated food. One day the royal cook gives him something new to eat – a hot golden ball, crisp outside, soft inside... a bonda! After that there is no stopping either the prince or this mad tale that rolls its jolly way to an inevitably happy, bondaful end. The jaunty illustrations pick up all the comic clues along the way, to...
Gulab works happily from dawn to dusk in the garden at the house on top of the hill. One evening he takes back a big bunch of magnolias for his wife – “those flowers that look like the moon”. But on the way, he gives away a flower to Raju Ghodawala with the horse, one to Tsering and her baby who have come from Tibet, another to Lachhami going back to her...
The story is set against the background of the 1947 Partition. But friendship between children knows no barbed wire fencing: all children play games, enjoy ice-cream and feel the loss of friends. This book is about every child's right to friendship and a home. Based on memories of her father, animator Nina Sabnani first made this as a film for the Big...
Bulbuli lives in a bamboo house in a bamboo grove, and is busy in her little bamboo world from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to sleep. Just following Bulbuli around, this story told in a rhythmic, cumulative style spotlights bamboo to make a simple green statement. Words and pictures communicate a very real sense of the versatility of bamboo...
Little Satya lives by the River Ganga in Banaras and longs to row her own boat, just like her father. But he says she's not old enough or strong enough. But Satya can't wait… One day, she makes a little paper boat and that night, she dreams and drifts into a watery world. As the story unfolds, the finely detailed illustrations and their colours heighten...
Who should get more rotis — Ookamma or Ookaiah? A folktale about a quarrelling old couple is woven into another story about the lives of children in a village, growing up, playing, going to a government school, watching adults squabble, feeling hunger, understanding friendship and, most importantly, sitting under a neem tree and listening to stories from...
“There was once a mountain made of bare stone…” It stands cold and alone until one day a small bird appears and changes its life. This well-loved story by American writer Alice McLerran, shared all over the world in many languages, draws from universal truths that go beyond boundaries of language and culture. The illustrations are as lyrical, evoking the...
A dusty path runs through a village where people and animals keep walking up and down, up and down. Others, on faster feet and wheels, shout “Out of the way, out of the way.” In a simple lyrical way, the author subverts commonly held views on environment and development by showing simultaneously the growth of a wide-spreading tree and a busy winding road,...
Dr C.V. Raman loved the universe, loved science, loved speaking to children. In this extraordinary book conceived by two creative minds, the eminent scientist and Nobel Prize winner urges readers to look around, observe nature and ask questions. The text is extracted from a famous lecture, and the photographs were taken while he was talking about why the...
Did you know that bees make a real song and dance over honey? And delicate butterflies can frighten fearsome birds? Superbly comic pictures exaggerate funny but true facts about the mad, mad world of creepy crawlies.
